What the promise says
Voice
Documenting Decisions
There is a shared, consistent and human language of care across services, free from overly professionalised and system-based terminology, ensuring that children, young people, families and care experienced adults are understood and supported with dignity. All reports and care records use simple, caring and plain language, written with the assumption that the child or young person will read them. The tone and content reflects respect, empathy and inclusion.
There will be a shared language of care and approach between services and professionals so that families are not navigating between competing standards and expectations (Pg 54).
Professionalised language will not be used to describe meetings and experiences (Pg 87). The words ‘respite’ (Pg 88), placement’ and ‘contact’ will not be used (Pg 24) and changes will be made to stop using similar ‘system language’.
Simple, caring language will be used in the writing of care files (Pg 69).
The workforce will be considerate and write reports in a clear, relatable way, using plain English (Pg 69). Reports will be written with the assumption the young person will read them later (Pg 69).
Decisions, particularly within the Children’s Hearings System, are recorded with accuracy, clarity and relevance - evidencing reasoning, respecting sibling relationships and avoiding unnecessary or historic detail.
All reports and submissions to a Children’s Hearing will be accurate, of high quality with all information that decision-makers require. Historical information that is not the focus of the reasons for the Hearing discussion will only be included where there is a need to provide context (Pg 42). Decision making in relation to any sibling separation will be accurately recorded and reviewed (Pg 62).
Those with care experience hold and own the narrative of their stories and lives, shaping how their experiences are understood and represented, and have control over how their information is shared. Decision makers are able to access the right information at the right time, with digital tools supporting ownership, and workforce knowledge recognised as key to effective decisions.
Scotland will understand that "language creates realities." Those with care experience will hold and own the narrative of their stories and lives (Pg 69).
In order for decision-makers to make effective decisions alongside children and families, the right information will be shared at the right time and that those close to children will be heard (Pg 30).
There will have been investment in the development of digital tools that incorporate the principle of information ownership. These will be operating at a scale that allows care experienced children, young people and adults to have control over their information and how it is shared (Pg 35).
The importance of the judgement and knowledge of the workforce who have regular, direct contact with children will be acknowledged. Those working with and alongside children will know where to report information and be confident it will be taken seriously. Pg 36).
Public discussion of care is free from stigma and sensationalism. Society and media portray care experience accurately and positively, celebrating love and belonging.
Society and the media will be mindful of how individual care stories are talked about and publicised. Care experienced people’s experiences will not be sensationalised and everyday examples of real-life scenarios will be promoted instead (Pg 88).
Listening
Children, young people, and care experienced adults are listened to continuously and meaningfully, in ways that are relational, creative, and appropriate to age, stage, and circumstances. The workforce and decision-makers are given the time, emotional space, and resources to listen well, with the expectation that what they hear leads to change. Listening and participation underpin service delivery, regulation, and continuous improvement, embedding learning in everyday practice.
Scotland will listen to, and keep listening to, its children (Pg 30).
Listening will have fundamentally shifted the balance of power and will provide a basis for shared language and understanding (Pg 32). Active listening and engagement will be a fundamental part of how Scotland makes decisions and supports children and families (Pg 37).
Effort will be made to ensure that quieter voices are listened to and understood, including infants and nonverbal children and those with learning disabilities. No one will be considered ‘hard to reach’ (Pg 32). The challenges of listening to babies, infants and young children will be recognised. Trusted adults who interpret their voices and behaviours will do so with care and consideration. The overall context of their care and the assets of their parents will be actively considered (Pg 32).
Decision-makers will listen with an expectation that what they hear will form the basis of their decisions (Pg 32). Listening will start with the expectation that it will lead to change (Pg 13).
The pain associated with the telling and retelling of stories will be recognised. Listening will be therapeutic and provide opportunity for healing. Children will not have to describe the most painful parts of their lives at every turn if they do not want to. (Pg 32).
The workforce and decision-makers will be given time and space to really listen to what children want and need. They will be supported to listen and be provided with age and stage appropriate resources with creative and thoughtful options to meet a diverse range of needs through meaningful relationships (Pg 30/32/33/37).
Scotland will listen to care experienced children, young people and care experienced adults in the delivery, inspection and continuous improvement of services and care (Pg 37). Services will be creative in their listening (Pg 32).
There will never be another review or judicial inquiry on the scale of the Independent Care Review because participation and listening are forming part of everything within Scotland’s ‘care system’ (Pg 37).
Participation and engagement
Children, young people, families and care experienced adults meaningfully influence decisions that affect their lives, with their voices and those of trusted adults prioritised over professional hierarchy
The voice of every person with care experience will be heard in their care journey (Pg 32).
Children will be appropriately involved in decision-making about their care, with all those involved properly listening and responding to what they want and need (Pg 12).
Children will be provided with all the support they need to fully participate and be heard in Hearings (Pg 42). Decision making will take into account what those closest to the children report rather than relying on a professional hierarchy (Pg 13/14).
A concerted effort will be made to hear more from parents and wider family members with children who are on the edge of or in care (Pg 32).
Children, young people, and care experienced adults understand and own their personal histories and care records, and are supported in accessing them safely and meaningfully.
Care experienced children, young people and adults will have ownership over their own stories and personal data so that they can understand and influence how their stories are shared (Pg 31).
Life story work will follow the lead of a child or young person and will not create or compound stigma (Pg 69).
Adoptive families will be aware of their responsibility to support their children to understand their life history (Pg 75).
If a child or adult wishes to access their care records they will be properly supported through that process (Pg 69).
Care
Advocacy and legal advice
All children, young people and families in contact with the ‘care system’ and care experienced adults have access to independent advocacy and legal advice and representation if required.
Families will be supported to understand and advocate for their rights and entitlements (Pg 114-116).
The purpose of advocacy and representation will be clear. Advocacy will not replace rights to legal representation but advocacy and legal representation will have a separate, distinct purpose (Pg 114/116).
Care experienced children, young people and adults will have the right and access to independent advocacy, at all stages of their experience of care and beyond. There will be no upper age limits for accessing advocacy and it will be available for as long as it is needed (Pg 115).
There will be consistent advocacy standards across Scotland that are subject to inspection and regulation (Pg 115).
Independent advocacy organisations will have been commissioned to ensure that advocacy is structurally, financially and psychologically separate from statutory organisations and service providers (Pg 115).
Groups and providers of peer advocacy will be supported to provide meaningful support to families (Pg 115).
There will be no upfront or hidden charges associated with engaging an advocacy worker (Pg 115).
Advocacy workers will be skilled and knowledgeable about the rights and entitlements of children. Specialist advocacy workers will be available to support disabled and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (Pg 115).
Legal professionals working with children and young people act with empathy, clarity, and respect. There are accredited specialisms in child law that embed understanding of children’s rights, trauma, and wellbeing.
Children and their families will have a right to legal advice and representation if required (Pg 116). This includes unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who will have access to legal support, advice and advocacy to navigate the Home Office asylum procedures (Pg 65).
Lawyers will act in a way that is accessible, understandable and not adversarial (Pg 116).
Scotland will have considered the creation of an accredited legal specialism to set standards for legal professionals representing children. Those standards will uphold children’s rights, understand trauma and attachment and how to operate in a setting that seeks to uphold children’s wellbeing (Pg 116).
There will be ready access to legal advice and representation when aspects of the 'care system' go wrong. There will be clarity about where care experienced children and young people can turn to for legal redress. All care experienced children and young adults will have access to justice legal remedies such as appeals, reviews and judicial reviews. Access to justice will include access to legal advice for children with additional support needs, those living in rural communities and those for whom English is a second language (Pg 116).
Decision making
Decision making is honest and transparent and grounded in what children and young people need and want, with secure and loving relationships at its heart.
Decision making will be based, first and foremost, on what children and care experienced young adults need and want (Pg 14/ 112).
The starting point for any decision will be how to best protect relationships that are important to children (Pg 30). Secure attachments, based on loving, consistent relationships, will be the bedrock of every decision made about children (Pg 72).
Listening and decision making will be honest and transparent so that everyone understands what has been decided and why (Pg 33).
Decision making takes account of the dynamics of brother and sister relationships and hears their voices, including in Children’s Hearings.
Decision making must take account of the dynamics of sibling relationships and all sibling voices must be heard (Pg 62).
In Children's Hearings, attention must be paid to the rights of brothers and sisters to ensure that they have all the necessary legal rights to have their voice heard. That must include the notification of forthcoming Hearings about their brothers and sisters and speedy rights of appeal if required (Pg 40).
Decision making challenges traditional power dynamics. Family Group Decision Making is accessible to all children and families who want it in every local area in Scotland.
Family Group Decision Making and mediation will be a common part of decision making (Pg 33).
Kinship family decision making will be supported by and characterised by family group decision making, to explore the breadth and consequences of decisions about where children should live (Pg 74).
Scotland will have challenged power dynamics within all decision making processes to achieve a balance which ensures all decisions taken are in the best interests of the child (Pg 14). There will be a balanced approach to decision making that primarily listens to and focuses on children and their families (Pg 32).
The Children's Hearings System has been redesigned to better serve and listen to children and families, including by ensuring that children and their families are the whole focus of their system and their legal rights upheld and respected. This has included periods of testing, planning ahead to account for any changes to the numbers of children referred to the Children's Hearings System and a clear assessment of the decision making structure.
The principles underpinning the Children's Hearings System will be upheld and understood across Scotland's services (Pg 14/89).
There will have been active consideration and testing of underlying structures, so that the Children’s Hearings System is best placed to truly listen and uphold the legal rights of children, young people, and their families (Pg 14) in accordance with what the Independent Care Review heard. This reconsideration will have been done in an evidence- based manner. Options for change will have been piloted (Pg 40).
Children, young people, and families will be the focus of the whole of the Children's Hearings System (Pg 14) and their legal rights will be upheld and respected (Pg 14/42).
The extension of enforcement and compulsion powers will have been tested to support parents and ensure local authorities are fulfilling their obligations to children (Pg 41).
The role of volunteers in the decision making structure of Hearings will have been comprehensively assessed. There will have been a thoughtful, evidence based exploration of alternative models of decision making (Pg 44).
The Children’s Hearings System will have shrunk and specialised and planning will have taken place to facilitate this, including full and proper consideration of implications for the operating model—including the dependency on volunteers (Pg 44).
Moving on and lifelong support
Care experienced people experience joined-up, planned and lifelong support as they move from childhood into adulthood, with no gaps, cliff edges or fragmentation between support.
Comprehensive thematic reviews of 'transition services' will have taken place; and all those with ongoing parenting responsibility will have explained how they plan to deliver integrated services from childhood to adulthood (Pg 93).
Aftercare will be person-centred, with thoughtful planning so that there are no cliff edges out of care and support (Pg 92).
There will be clear communication and streamlining of the range of financial supports available to those with care experience (Pg 93).
Care experienced people are supported to stay in care for as long as they want or need, to move on when ready, and to return without stigma or barriers.
Scotland will support young people in becoming independent, stable and self-reliant, while also recognising there may be a need to stay or come home at times. Those under Scotland’s care will have the right to return to care and will be able to access supportive services and nurturing people (p 92).
Young people will be also encouraged to stay in their setting of care for as long as they need or want to. Rules, processes and culture will support that approach. There will be no regulatory or financial barriers for young people to stay with foster carers for as long as is required (Pg 78/92).
When young adults move on to independent living or need to return to a caring environment, all decisions will be made in their best interests and not on the strict application of age criteria (Pg 92).
Residential Care settings will be supported and resourced to keep places open for children and young people in line with ‘continuing care’ legislation. This will not end when children and young people do not want, and are not ready, to leave (Pg 80).
Scotland delivers a holistic, lifelong ‘good parent’ approach, ensuring care experienced people can access support through any door, at any stage of life.
There will be ‘no wrong doors’ for care experienced people. Scotland will support young people as they enter adulthood and this support will be life long and holistic for the children, young people and care experienced adults it cares for, acting at all times like a good parent for whom it has parenting responsibility (Pg 92).
Care experienced children, young people and adults experience greater equity of opportunity and improved life chances, supported by stable relationships and practical support.
Scotland will have considered and made changes to ensure greater equity and opportunity for care experienced children, young people and adults. That includes increase opportunities for care experienced adults to access employment, training, stable housing and support (Pg 93).
Older care experienced people will have a right to access supportive, caring services for as long as they require them. Those services and the people who work in them, will have a primary focus on the development and maintenance of supportive relationships that help people to access what they need to thrive (Pg 92).
All those with parenting responsibility operate with a shared culture, values and purpose, enabling consistent, rights-based and relationship-centred delivery.
All those with ongoing parenting responsibilities for young adults work towards a shared set of aims, values and knowledge (Pg 93).
Relationships
Scotland’s understanding of risk recognises the danger of disconnection, including the risk of removing children and young people from loving, stable relationships. Decision-making balances protection from harm with the right to lasting, supportive relationships. Every child and young person is supported to sustain relationships that matter to them - with family, brothers and sisters, carers, and trusted adults - wherever it is safe to do so.
There will have been a shift in focus from the risk of possible harm to the risk of not having stable, long term, loving relationships (Pg 16). This includes the risk to the child of removing them from their family.
All children will be supported to continue relationships that are important to them, where it is safe to do so (Pg 63). This includes with birth families, siblings, carers and members of the workforce.
There will be active consideration about the breadth of adult relationships available when a child is placed in a care setting, so that time away from home feels natural, normal and a good place to be. All short breaks will mirror those routinely in place in wider family networks (with recognised continuity of relationship), and take place in ways that do not create or compound stigma, and help children continue to feel part of the family (Pg 101).
Children who have been harmed through relationships have supportive relationships in order to heal (Pg 101). ognised continuity of relationship), and take place in ways that do not create or compound stigma, and help children continue to feel part of the family (Pg 101).
The workforce will be able to maintain relationships with young people who leave a particular care setting and understand that as part of their role (Pg 93). Blanket policies that prevent the maintenance of relationships between young people who leave residential care and workers will have been removed (Pg 79).
The workforce will have time to develop, focus and reflect on relationships. As well as strengthening supportive networks and valuing the roles of varied people in children’s lives (Pg 23). There will be increased trust in them to make meaningful connections based on instinct and judgement (Pg 24).
Where families wish to stay connected but it is not safe to do so, systems ensure details are maintained so that reconnection remains possible if a child or young person wishes. Recording practices reflect the value placed on brother and sister relationships as a right and source of wellbeing. Decision making relating to brothers and sisters is accurately recorded and reviewed.
Where families wish to maintain relationships with their children, but that contact is prevented, they will be supported to maintain their details so that they can be contacted at a later stage if the young person wishes (Pg 63).
Recording practices that reflect the value placed on sibling relationships as a right and a source of well-being. Decision making in relation to any sibling separation is accurately recorded and reviewed (Pg 63).
Stability
When it is not safe for children and young people to remain at home, they live with consistent caregivers in safe, loving environments that meet their needs. Children and young people do not experience unnecessary moves, and relationships that matter to them are protected and sustained.
When it is not safe for children to remain at home, they will be with consistent caregivers and children will be supported to maintain relationships that are important to them (Pg 17 etc).
Children will not experience unnecessary moves and will always be in a safe, loving environment where all their needs are met (Pg 67).
Scotland will have processes to learn from things not working out, to avoid children being moved multiple times and to improve the maintenance of relationships (Pg 67).
If a move is unavoidable, the repair to the rupture of that relationship and the impact of any subsequent move will be well thought through. Relationships will be maintained in different capacities, if safe to do so (Pg 67).
Time and care will be taken to place children appropriately (Pg 75).
There will be strategic, needs based planning for children so that they are provided with warm, relational, therapeutic, safe, loving homes when they are required (Pg 111).
There will be sufficient availability of safe, loving homes for children removed from their families, and these must be able to accommodate sibling groups where it is safe to do so (Pg 67).
Multi-agency partners will plan strategically for both family carers and child services, based on outcomes from aggregated individual family and child plans. This will include robust concurrency planning for carers (Pg 67-68).
Scotland must limit the number of moves that children experience and support carers to continue to care (Pg 67)
When moves or transitions are unavoidable, they are carefully planned, relational, and informed. Support wraps around families and carers, and children and young peoplehave time, information, and relationship support so that transitions do not feel rushed or unsafe.
Any transition in a child’s life will be limited, relational, planned and informed. Support will wrap around families and the settings of care, so that carers and families are supported, and children experience consistent, safe and loving relationships (Pg 68).
Transitions will not take place in a hurry or feel like an emergency. Children will have time to collect personal items that are important to them in a way that is safe, appropriate and rights respecting (Pg 68).
Everyone involved in a transition - the child, the family from which they are being removed and the family or safe, loving environment to which they are going - will have as much information as possible to help ensure the child feels safe, loved and informed (Pg 68).
Where children live
Kinship care is valued as a vital part of family based care. Kinship carers receive financial, emotional and practical support without stigma or bureaucracy, and are recognised as part of the broader workforce with access to reflective support and supervision.
Children living in kinship care will get the support they need to thrive (Pg 74).
Kinship is actively explored as a positive place for children to be cared for (Pg 74).
Kinship care is valued. Families will have access to the support and services needed, which is offered freely without kinship carers having to fight for it, including financial support to provide the best care (Pg 74).
Kinship carers will not need to professionalise their role in order to access support. They will be considered part of the broader workforce with access to ongoing supervision, space for reflection and support (Pg 74).
Adoption is underpinned by careful matching, transparency, and lifelong support. Families are helped to understand trauma and attachment and receive ongoing reflective help and support. Adoption breakdowns are recognised and supported compassionately.
Prospective adopting families will have access to all available information and will be supported to make sure children receive the best environment for them to grow up and thrive (Pg 75).
Adoptive families will receive the support and attention required to love and care for their children, particularly where the ongoing impact of trauma and broken attachment is felt by the child and the family (Pg 21/ 76). This includes reflective practices, supervision and peer support (Pg 76) so that, wherever possible, adoption breakdown is avoided.
Families who experience an adoption breakdown are supported and the impact of this is recognised (Pg 76).
Foster carers are valued and supported to care with love and patience. They receive financial, emotional, and professional support. High-quality, values-based fostering is promoted.
Foster care is valued. Foster families will have access to the support and services needed. Foster carers are cared for and supported to care, including financial support (Pg 77).
Foster carers know that their primary purpose is to develop nurturing, patient, kind, compassionate, trusting and respectful relationships so that the children in their care feel loved and safe (Pg 77).
There will have been consideration of a national register for Foster Carers (Pg 77).
Residential care operates on shared therapeutic values, providing stable, nurturing relationships. Rules are flexible to meet individual needs, and the workforce balances consistency with adaptability.
Residential settings will operate with a cohesive set of values that uphold the rights of the children they are caring for. Those values will be therapeutic, recognising that children require thoughtful, supportive relationships as a basis on which to heal and develop as young adults (Pg 79).
The needs of the children living in a residential home at the time will inform rules as opposed to a blanket set of instructions and restrictions (Pg 79).
Children and young people will have supportive, kind relationships with all staff. The residential provider will be supported in finding the right balance between having consistent core staff along with the flexibility of additional support that works for the children and young people (Pg 79).
Secure Care is small, therapeutic, and trauma-informed, used only as a last resort. Transitions beyond Secure Care are planned and supported, with intermediate options and extended care where needed.
The purpose, delivery and infrastructure of secure care will change. Scotland’s response to the small number of children who need this level of security, care and protection will look radically different in 2030 compared to 2020 (Pg 81). The contradictions between settings and in the overall provision of Secure Care will have been collectively addressed (Pg 80).
Fewer children will live in Secure Care. Children will only be placed in highly restricted environments when necessary and not simply as an escalation when other interventions have failed (Pg 81).
Planning and provision of Secure Care will reflect the needs of children in Scotland to ensure there are sufficient places for those that need them (Pg 82). Children will not be held in Secure Care due to inadequate community options, as there will be accessible and available alternative community-based support, aligned with the principles of intensive family support (Pg 83).
The underlying principle of Secure Care will be the provision of therapeutic, trauma-informed support (Pg 81). A range of therapeutic interventions will be available within Secure Care in Scotland and all children will receive all that they need to support healing and rehabilitation (Pg 80). This will include access to support for the high numbers of children who have additional support needs to achieve the highest possible standard of health (Pg 83).
Children in Secure Care will have access to education services to support and enhance their learning, rather than disrupt it (Pg 83).
Where safe to do so, children in Secure Care will be supported to maintain good contact with their family (Pg 83).
The use of Secure Care will always uphold children’s rights. Children will be involved and listened to. They will be given the chance to express their views and are told about their legal rights of appeal through a culture of care that meets their needs and helps them understand their legal protections (Pg 83).
Specific residential, therapeutic settings will be available for girls who have been sexually abused and exploited (Pg 81).
All children who have been sexually abused and exploited will have the specific, therapeutic care and support they need to recover and be kept safe. Their rights are recognised and upheld in a trauma informed way, so that their pain is not exacerbated by where they live (Pg 81).
There will be greater scope to remain in Secure Care for those who have turned 18. Children leaving Secure Care will receive support. There is investment in supportive intermediate settings so that young people leaving Secure Care are able to access the support they need (Pg 81/82/84).
Children will only go to Secure Care when all other options have been fully explored and for the shortest possible time (Pg 91).
Secure Care will be small, secure, safe and trauma informed that uphold the totality of children’s rights (Pg 91).
Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children receive the same standard of loving, rights-based care as all children in Scotland. Their cultural and religious identities are respected, and they are protected from harm, trafficking and distress.
Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children will have their rights upheld and receive the same care and support as any other child. Unaccompanied asylum seeking children will be treated as ‘looked after’ children and they are placed in caring, supportive settings with access to education, health services and other appropriate services as required. There are no barriers to their participation (Pg 65).
When the age of an unaccompanied child is unclear there may be circumstances where a health assessment is required. This should only be when necessary and done so in a way that limits trauma and distress (Pg 65).
The workforce will be alive to the issues of human trafficking. When a child is suspected of being the victim of trafficking they will be given protection (Pg 65).
The workforce supporting asylum seeking children will understand their religious and cultural contexts. Those traditions and cultural needs will be respected by all those involved in their care to ensure their rights upheld (Pg 65).
Care for Scotland’s children and young people remains the responsibility of Scottish Local Authorities. Scotland does not sell care placements to other jurisdictions, upholding children’s fundamental rights and keeping them within their communities, unless in exceptional circumstances.
Wherever in the best interest of the child, and when it reflects their needs and wishes, the focus of caring for Scotland’s children and young people must remain the responsibility of Local Authorities in Scotland, and children and young people will remain within their communities. It will be widely acknowledged that accepting children and young people from outside Scotland is a breach of their fundamental human rights. As such, Scotland will no longer sell care placements to Local Authorities outside of Scotland (Pg 110).
Family
Universal family support
The universal support system supports all families and identifies those who need support. A significant upscaling of universally accessible family support services has meant that the commitment to early help and support is realised through holistic, non- stigmatising, inclusive whole family support for all families that need it, for as long as they need it.
The underlying universal support system will support all families and identify those who need support. Universal services will recognise the role they play as adjacent parts of the wider scaffolding of care (Pg 46).
Support will be provided for all families to care and to nurture their pre-school children, beyond the provision of nursery (Pg 49).
Scotland will support a broad understanding of the importance of the early years of parenting. Preparation for birth will give parents the opportunity to access universal attachment based parenting education to sit alongside antenatal care (Pg 48).
There will have been a significant upscaling in universally accessible family support services (Pg 46).
Families will be provided with support that lasts as long as required. There will be a collective acceptance that for some families this will be a long-term commitment, extending beyond previous standard practice (Pg 52).
All communities will have supportive, universally accessible places out of the home where parents and carers can build relationships, share their parenting experiences and be supported to stay and play with their children (Pg 49).
Intensive family support
Scotland shares a clear, national understanding of the purpose and delivery of the ten principles of intensive family support. Intensive family support is proactive, and easy to access. Families no longer need to fight for help. Systems focus on empowerment and relational support rather than risk management.
The purpose of intensive family support will be explicitly understood across Scotland as being to: (1) Keep families together and avoid children going into care wherever it is safe to do so; (2) Interrupt and address intergenerational cycles of trauma; and (3) Sustain meaningful and loving relationships (Pg 52).
If families require intensive support they will get it. They will not be required to fight for it (Pg 52/ 74/ 76).
The scaffolding of the system will have shifted from managing risks and needs to supporting families to find their own solutions (Pg 52).
Holistic family support and individualised planning with the principles of 'one family one plan' wraparound support will be available for all families in and on the edges of care (Pg 52).
There will be recognition that there are some families experiencing particular issues who are much more likely to come into contact with the ‘care system’ (Pg 52). Their rights will be upheld and their needs will be met.
The principles of intensive family support will extend to kinship, foster, and adoptive families, recognising their continued need for wraparound, therapeutic help to build and sustain relationships and stability.
There will be recognition that kinship, adoptive and foster families may need ongoing, intensive support (Pg 20). The principles for intensive family support that wrap around a family must be accessible to these families too (Pg 74).
Support is available for all families caring for disabled children and those with additional support needs. Where a parent has a learning disability, care planning is specific and supportive and mental health help and support is available at all stages of parent and carers' parenting journey
Support will be available for all families caring for disabled children and those with additional support needs (Pg 52).
Care planning (where a parent has a learning disability) must be specific and supportive, working with their assets to build on their capabilities as parents (Pg 53).
There will be availability of services to support parents and carers’ mental health at all stages of their parenting journey.
Scotland’s justice system protects children’s relationships and rights when parents face imprisonment. Short custodial sentences are avoided; sentencing considers children’s welfare; and wraparound support prevents trauma and separation.
The imprisonment of those with parenting responsibilities will be prevented wherever possible. The presumption against short custodial sentences will progressed and the needs, views and rights of children will be taken into account as part of sentencing decisions (Pg 53).
If parents are imprisoned, there will be wraparound support for families affected. Parents facing imprisonment will be supported to make plans for their children in a way that avoids emergency removal and a panicked response (Pg 53).
Criminal Courts will actively consider the impact on children and ensure proper dialogue between services for joined up planning. Where it is safe to do so, the relationship between child and parent will be supported, and children of imprisoned parents will find the experience of prison visiting is as positive and non-stigmatising as possible (Pg 53).
The imprisonment of pregnant mothers will be avoided. For mothers who are in prison at the time of giving birth, there will be support for them to care for and remain with their babies for as long as possible where it is safe to do so. They will be fully involved in all decisions about their baby and be given all the support they need to nurture. Support will follow them when they leave prison so there is a smooth transition of care (Pg 53/54).
Children and adult services work together to support families affected by substance use and holistically assess children and young people within their families to support them to stay together when safe. Early, intensive and domestic abuse informed support is available and there is no penalisation of parents experiencing domestic abuse. Perpetrators of domestic abuse are held accountable and children and young people are protected from harm. Access to rehabilitation and support is more readily available.
Services supporting parental substance use and statutory children's services will compassionately collaborate with each other, ensuring supports are in place that holistically assess children within their families and support them to stay with families whenever it is safe to do so. Access to rehabilitation and support will be more readily available (Pg 54).
There will be no penalisation of parents who are experiencing domestic abuse and there will be a recognition that violence and abuse within the home happens across Scotland. Early, intensive and domestic abuse informed support will be available for families. There will be consistent practice across Scotland which holds perpetrators of domestic abuse to account and enables effective interventions to create opportunities for change (Pg 55).
All children wherever they live, will be protected from all forms of violence (Pg 86).
Families whose children are removed from their care are not abandoned. They receive therapeutic support, advocacy, and engagement to repair relationships and sustain wellbeing.
Families will not be abandoned if children are removed from their care. They will be provided with therapeutic support, advocacy and engagement in line with principles of intensive family support (Pg 63).
Poverty
Poverty reduction reaches families on the edges of care and early help and support is universal, stigma-free, and financially competent.
Poverty will have significantly reduced (Pg 18).
Universal and early help and support services for families will be supporting and assisting families sensitively where poverty is the underlying problem (Pg 47).
The evidence around poverty and child neglect will have been considered and openly discussed to support all children to grow up loved, safe and respected (Pg 18).
No care experienced young person or family experiences poverty. Transitions to adulthood are secure and intergenerational cycles between poverty and care are broken.
Scotland will have worked to break intergenerational cycles of trauma and the link between persistent poverty and intergenerational interaction with the ‘care system’ (Pg 18).
People
Leadership
Leadership across Scotland’s 'care system' is values-based, relational and collective, enabling safe and loving relationships for children, young people, families, and care experienced adults through shared power, honest dialogue, ongoing learning, and a broadened understanding of risk.
Values-based leadership will exist at all levels and in all settings of the ‘care system’ (Pg 99)
Strong leadership will be evident across and throughout the entire ‘care system.’ (Pg 17).
Leaders will model an approach that encourages a culture of speaking up and recognising the judgment of the workforce (Pg 36).
Leadership will value the voice and opinion of children and the workforce and will nurture a culture of appropriate information sharing (Pg 36).
Settings of care will have established a leadership culture that upholds children’s rights and applies the values of care, attachment, attunement and co-regulation in day to day life (Pg 85).
Leadership will be based on a broader understanding of risk and of the importance of natural, warm human relationships (Pg 103).
Recruitment and retention
There are enough skilled, confident and well-supported people, both unpaid and paid, to meet the needs of Scotland’s children, young people, families, and care experienced adults. The paid and unpaid workforce have the time, resources, and capacity to provide the care and support required.
There will be enough skilled and confident members of the unpaid and paid workforce to meet the needs of Scotland’s children, families and care experienced adults (Pg 103).
Anyone working alongside children, families and care experienced adults, including midwives, health visitors, family support workers and social workers, will be well resourced and supported and have sufficient capacity to care in the way the promise demands (Pg 48).
Recruitment, induction and development of the unpaid and paid workforce prioritises values, relational qualities, and ability to care, ensuring that those working with and caring for children, young people, families, and care experienced adults can act with compassion and create nurturing, loving relationships.
The ability of the workforce to act with care and compassion will be prioritised and they will be supported to develop the space within which loving care and nurturing relationships can develop (Pg 103).
The workforce, including foster carers, will be recruited on the basis of their values (Pg 77/ 79).
Employment conditions across the workforce supporting children, young people, families, and care experienced adults enable people to flourish, feel valued, and remain committed to their roles. This means they have fair pay, manageable workloads, and supportive environments that promote wellbeing and retention.
Employment conditions will allow people involved in the care of children to flourish and feel valued (Pg 101).
The number and quality of kinship, foster, and adoptive carers exceeds the needs of Scotland’s children and young people, ensuring they, particularly brothers and sisters, are cared for in families that can meet their needs and sustain relationships.
The number and quality of kinship, foster, and adoptive carers exceeds the needs of Scotland’s children and young people, ensuring they, particularly siblings, are cared for in families that can meet their needs and sustain relationships.
Rules, processes and culture
A strong national values framework guides everyone working with or caring for children, young people, families, and care experienced adults. All organisations and Local Authorities understand and act on their collective parenting responsibilities, ensuring that workforce culture reflects kindness, empathy, and care.
A strong ‘national values framework’ will be in place for all of Scotland’s workforce (Pg 93/ 99).
All of Scotland’s institutions, organisations, national bodies and Local Authorities are aware of, understand and fully implement all their parenting responsibilities (Pg 93).
The system of rules and safeguards is oriented around love and consistent relationships. Professional guidelines and boundaries support, not constrain, caring behaviour. Mmbers of the worrkforce are trusted and supported to bring their whole selves to their roles and to act with compassion and good judgment.
It will have been acknowledged that the previous system of rules and safeguards did not serve children well. Children's safety means having real, loving, and consistent relationships, which will be prioritised over rules and processes that fail to keep children safe (Pg 17).
Every care setting will facilitate a relationship-based approach (Pg 72).
There will have been a reassessment of professional guidelines and boundaries to make kind and loving behaviour the norm (Pg 23).
Scotland's understanding of risk is broad and distinguishes between crisis risk and everyday relational risk. Risk-taking is recognised as a normal part of care, and professional judgment rooted in trust, respect and love replace excessive proceduralism.
Scotland will have broadened its understanding of risk. Risk will be contextualised with the differentiation between risk associated with crisis and risk associated with other behaviours (Pg 105).
The workforce will have a different conception of risk taking, where risk taking is seen as a normal part of care (Pg 104).
There is support for the workforce to bring their whole selves to their work, to have a strong understanding of themselves, and to act in a way that feels natural and not impeded by a professional construct (Pg 101).
The workforce is supported and trusted to make sensible, thoughtful, caring judgments. Sometimes carers will make decisions to not allow a child or young person to do something. This will be understood as a normal part of growing up and will not need to be explained within the language of professional risk assessments. It is understood that those decisions come out of and are based on a relationship of trust, respect and love (Pg 88).
Rules and processes do not prevent children, young people, and families from living ordinary, fulfilling lives unnecessarily. Regardless of where children and young people live, they are fully included in family life and community activities, supported by proportionate regulation and trust.
Children will be included in a meaningful loving way within their foster family without barriers. Rules and regulations support children to be fully included with the life of their foster carers (Pg 77).
There will be no structural, systemic or cultural barriers, including regulatory barriers, for children and young people to have regular, positive experiences (Pg 104).
Scotland actively works to ensure that children, young people, and adults with care experience are not stigmatised. Every care setting and public service fosters a culture of belonging, recognising care as an expression of love, not difference.
Children will not be further stigmatised (Pg 79/ 87).
Workforce support
All members of the workforce experience regular, reflective supervision, coaching, and feedback that prioritises emotional support, learning, and improvement. Reflection focuses on what matters to children, young people, and families, supporting the workforce to develop and sustain compassionate, relational practice.
All members of the workforce will experience reflection, supervision and structured support, which will be recognised as an essential part of practice (Pg 10).
Reflective practice for the workforce (coaching, mentoring, and supervision) will include things that matter to children, including how loved they feel, how their rights are upheld and how stigma is being reduced (Pg 100).
Feedback will be a routine component of development (Pg 61).
Scotland’s workforce are supported to manage the emotional labour of care, with recognition that many workers have lived experience of trauma. Trauma-informed systems of care ensure staff wellbeing, emotional availability, and confidence to exercise natural, thoughtful judgment.
There will be recognition that Scotland’s workforce includes survivors of trauma (Pg 100). Support for the workforce will be available, effective, flexible and regular and will ensure:
• the workforce will be present and emotionally available to the children in their care
• the workforce will be able to work autonomously, with tools to exercise effective judgement
• the workforce will be supported to care for children who have had deeply troubling experiences
• care-experienced adults will feel supported through their lives and will not experience barriers to this support because of challenges with the workforce (Pg 104).
Kinship, foster, and adoptive carers are recognised as an integral part of Scotland’s care workforce. They have access to supervision and reflective support to ensure they can create and sustain lasting, loving relationships.
Kinship carers and foster carers will be recognised as part of the broader workforce to ensure carers receive the support they need to care for children and young people and have ongoing supervision and reflection to prevent overwhelm, with recognition of secondary trauma (Pg 100-105).
Learning and development is designed to ensure that everyone working with children, young people, families and care experienced adults, across social work, education, health, justice, and care, shares a common foundation in child development, attachment, trauma, and rights. Training will be lifelong, role-appropriate, and promote collaboration across disciplines.
Learning and training will have been redesigned to ensure the workforce is well supported and confident to work across disciplines. There will be clear learning pathways that foster self-awareness, emotional competence and human connection through shared learning, mentoring and reflective practice (Pg 100-105).
The way Scotland cares will be underpinned by the guiding principle of attachment and will be informed, responsive and reflective about the nature and impact of trauma. Role-appropriate access to initial and lifelong learning will be provided, focusing on attachment theory, trauma-responsive care, wellbeing, and children’s rights. Everyone involved in the Children’s Hearings System will be properly trained in trauma, development, neurodiversity and rights. Gaps in workforce training in education, justice and health will have been addressed. Child development will be part of essential foundation learning for anyone working with children. Multidisciplinary foundation learning for professionals will cover basic principles of human development and rights (Pg 100-105).
All those working with and alongside children, young people, and families create environments where children’s rights are upheld, voices are heard, and concerns or feedback can be safely shared. Rights-respecting practice is embedded through reflective supervision, feedback loops, and organisational accountability.
All those working with and alongside care-experienced children, young people and adults will be supported to create a rights-respecting environment where children feel they can raise concerns, complaints and feedback (Pg 100-105)
Scaffolding
Data and information
Scotland collects and uses data that reflects what matters to children, young people, and care experienced adults - supporting learning, relationships, and better decisions. Data is accurate, comprehensive, and representative, filling long-standing gaps such as equalities, sibling relationships, and adoption breakdowns.
Scotland will be collecting data that shows what matters to children, young people and care experienced adults rather than data that only matters to the system (Pg 115).
Improvements will have been made to how data is used in decision-making (Pg 13). Those who collect data will proactively listen to the experiences of children, young people, families, and care experienced adults, and those who support them, and that information will be treated as valuable evidence. Data will enable holistic support instead of being a barrier to that support.
The data Scotland collects will be of high quality and as close to complete as possible. Common gaps, such as a lack of equalities information, information on brothers and sisters, and data on adoption breakdowns will be addressed. Data on the extent and reasons for adoption breakdown must be collected, which must follow the experience of children whose adoption has broken down, recognising the prevalence of this and its impact on late teens and early adulthood (Pg 76).
Scotland’s data systems are integrated and interoperable, allowing visibility of journeys and outcomes across services, and improving accountability for change.
Incomplete data will no longer be a barrier to data linkage or use. Data will be joined up, allowing people and organisations to see entire journeys and changes over time. Joined up data will also improve accountability for outcomes instead of just activities or inputs (Pg 13).
The workforce is confident and supported to gather, interpret, and use data that reflects lived experience and relationships, not just statistics.
The workforce will be supported to capture and use data and information on experiences and relationships in addition to outputs and outcomes. They will have the capacity and skills to use this high quality, holistic data in decision making and not just in reporting and research (Pg 13).
Children, young people, and care experienced adults have control over their information and how it is shared. Decision makers are able to access the right information at the right time, with digital tools supporting ownership, and workforce knowledge recognised as key to effective decisions, meaning decisions are made and services are designed using diverse, high-quality data and lived experience to meet real needs, rather than repeating historical patterns.
Services will be designed on the basis of need - backed by diverse, strong data and evidence - rather than on an acceptance of how the system has always operated (Pg 110).
In order for decision-makers to make effective decisions alongside children and families, the right information will be shared at the right time and that those close to children will be heard (Pg 30).
There will have been investment in the development of digital tools that incorporate the principle of information ownership. These will be operating at a scale that allows care experienced children, young people and adults to have control over their information and how it is shared (Pg 35).
The importance of the judgement and knowledge of the workforce who have regular, direct contact with children will be acknowledged. Those working with and alongside children will know where to report information and be confident it will be taken seriously (Pg 36).
Education
Schools and local authorities uphold all legal entitlements for care experienced learners, ensuring equality of access and opportunity. All care experienced learners can access inclusive, flexible education with support tailored to their needs and experiences.
Schools and educational institutions will support care experienced children and young people to receive all they are entitled to, via the consistent application of legal requirements (Pg 71).
There will be engagement from the broader workforce around children and young people’s educational attainment, achievement and sustained positive destinations (Pg 71).
Where children’s educational experience has been disrupted it will be understood that some children may require additional or different support to realise their potential. Learning pathways will be accessible and promoted to all with appropriate funding routes to build a diverse workforce (Pg 108).
All barriers for young people who have had parenting responsibility to continue their education will have been removed. They will be supported to enter education at any age. They will be entitled to repeat year funding (if they are required to repeat a year), and year round funding to include the holiday period (Pg 93).
Schools are trauma-informed, relational environments that prioritise nurture, wellbeing, emotional regulation and learning and eliminate seclusion, exclusion and restraint for care experienced learners.
Schools and Local Authorities will be doing everything required to support children to build positive relationships at school and maintain attendance, engagement and learning in a meaningful and supportive way (Pg 71).
There will be clear preventative factors built into practice around challenging behaviours, de-escalation and subsequent reflection (Pg 86).
Schools will not exacerbate trauma of children by imposing consequences for challenging behaviour that are restrictive, humiliating and stigmatising. This includes seclusion or restraint and can include certain use of behaviour reward systems (Pg 72). Seclusion is not an acceptable part of trauma informed care (Pg 86).
The formal and informal exclusion of care experienced children from school will have ended. Care experienced children will not be excluded from education or find their timetable has been reduced to such an extent they are denied their right to education (Pg 72)
Schools will ensure that pupils and parents understand ‘care experience’ as part of their communities and as another type of family (Pg 72).
Teachers and school staff are confident, supported and relationally equipped to help care experienced children and young people thrive and feel they belong.
The workforce will be properly supported and resourced to step in to put theory into good practice by supporting and building relationships with care experienced children and young people (Pg 71).
Teachers and school staff must be supported to be aware of the issues facing care experienced pupils so they can best engage and encourage them (Pg 72).
Care experienced young people have consistent mentoring and financial support through school, college and university, ensuring positive, sustained destinations.
Children and young people will have opportunities for mentoring support throughout school, college and university (Pg 93).
Students will be prevented from getting into significant debt and universities and colleges will act on their responsibilities (Pg 93).
Governance
Governance across Scotland’s care system places children’s rights and relationships at the centre. Leaders at every level are accountable for improving outcomes for care experienced people and demonstrate values-based leadership in action. Accountability frameworks align data, reporting and scrutiny to focus on outcomes that matter to children and families, minimising bureaucracy and improving collective accountability.
The scaffolding of help, support and accountability must be ready and responsive when it is required (Pg 25).
If Scotland is to shift its practice to support, prioritise and nurture relationships, then Scotland must shift its accountability structures (Pg 119).
Health
All children, young people, families, and care experienced adults have equal, stigma-free access to physical, mental, dental, and sexual health support through caring, nurturing relationships.
Scotland will stop creating extra, stigmatising processes for children and young people simply because they are care experienced (Pg 89).
All children and young people will have access to regular check-ups, such as dentist and health appointments (Pg 89).
The workforce, and in particular family carers, will know that they have a role in supporting children and young people to have good overall health including dental, physical, mental and sexual. That must be done through caring, nurturing relationships that model good habits and a healthy approach to life (Pg 89).
Care experienced children and young people have access to support ensuring that their health needs are fully met and potential for good health is maximised (Pg 15)
Scotland delivers timely, trauma-informed mental health support that does not require diagnosis, avoids crisis and hospitalisation, and ensures sufficient inpatient capacity where needed.
The model for mental health support for children in care will operate effectively. Access to timely, appropriate therapies will be available to, but not limited to, those who have experience of care (Pg 51).
Children and young people will not require a significant mental health diagnosis to be able to access support. Scotland will have a range of timely, trauma-informed, and thoughtful support (mental health) therapies available to those that require it, regardless of diagnosis (Pg 51).
There will be timely access to mental health support before crisis point, to avoid hospitalisation. This will be available as long as it is needed and available for children who are in hospital so that services and families can plan for return to the community (Pg 51/ 84).
There will be appropriate and sufficient provision of inpatient (mental health) services for children across Scotland (Pg 84).
Community-based and family-inclusive therapies are available to all, supporting lifelong mental wellbeing and integrated adult–child services.
There will be criteria-free, community-based access to therapies that do not stigmatise, but instead help and support children, young people, families, and care experienced adults to work through difficulties they are facing (Pg 51).
There will be greater availability of family therapy, for all families (kinship, foster, adoptive, family of origin) so that accessing support is not stigmatised, but seen as something that a range of families may require throughout their lives (Pg 51). This includes services to support parents and carers’ mental health at all stages of their parenting journey (Pg 55).
There will be effective and flexible collaboration between services supporting adult mental health and statutory children's services (Pg 55)
Scotland must seek to uphold the wellbeing of care-experienced children and young people and ensure that there is timely access to mental health support before crisis point so that children can enjoy good mental health. (Pg 13)
Children, young people, and adults leaving hospital care receive continuous, planned, wraparound support to sustain recovery and reintegration into their communities.
Scotland will recognise its responsibilities to those who have spent significant time in hospital through the decisions of the State and ensure they are properly supported to access all they need. Support will be continuous and ensure services and families can plan for a return to the community (Pg 84).
Justice
Children and young people are not criminalised or incarcerated. The response to behaviour is relational, restorative, and rights based.
Care experienced children and young people will not be criminalised (Pg 40). Children who have often experienced the failures of the state in the provision of their care will not be locked up (Pg 91).
The justice workforce is supported and skilled to act relationally and trauma-informatively, replacing process-driven responses with understanding and care.
The workforce will be supported to behave and treat children in a relational way, rather than procedural and process driven (Pg 91).
All children's court cases are heard in environments that uphold their rights and allow them to effectively participate rather than traditional criminal courts. Alternative approaches have been developed and more children are kept within the Children's Hearings System.
The totality of children’s cases will be dealt with in environments that uphold their rights and allows them to effectively participate in proceedings. It will have been accepted that traditional criminal courts are not settings in which children’s rights can be upheld and where they can be heard (Pg 41) and alternative approaches will have been developed.
More efforts will have been made to keep children within the Children's Hearings System. If cases are tried in formal criminal courts, disposal (for the vast majority of offences) will occur within the Children's Hearings System (Pg 42).
The minimum age of criminal responsibility will be in line with the most progressive global Governments.
The minimum age of criminal responsibility will be in line with the most progressive global Governments (Pg 91).
No child is placed in a Young Offenders Institution or prison, and young people who turn 18 while in Secure Care are not automatically transferred to a Young Offenders Institute
16 and 17-year-olds will be accommodated within Secure Care rather than Young Offenders Institutions and the prison estate, including children who are on remand and who have been sentenced (Pg 82)
Young people who turn 18 while in Secure Care will not be automatically transferred to a Young Offenders Institute (Pg 82).
Legislation
Scotland has a clear legislative, enabling environment that keeps the promise.
A clear legislative, enabling environment will be in place (Pg 112).
Legislation will be in place that supports families to stay together wherever safe to do so, that protects and allows relationships to flourish and children to thrive and that enables care experienced adults to access lifelong support (Pg 112).
There will have been full consideration of the legislative environment that governs data to ensure Scotland is able to measure and collect what it needs to ensure it understands what is happening and how services are working (Pg 13).
Money and commissioning
Scotland’s care system does not allow profit or marketisation. Regulatory scrutiny ensures any surplus funds are directed back into the care and support of children and young people. Profit-based targets and incentives have been removed across all services.
There will be no place for profiting in how Scotland cares for its children (Pg 111). Scotland will be avoiding the monetisation of the care of children and the marketisation of care will be prevented (Pg 111). Regulatory bodies will scrutinise any presence of profit to ensure that funds are properly directed to the care and support of children (Pg 111).
Services within the ‘care system’ will not profit from care. Any presence of surplus funds generated within any part of the ‘care system’ will be directed to the care and support of children and young people. There will no longer be targets associated with adopting children and young people, including financial and profit based targets (Pg 75). Processes of regulation, scrutiny and commissioning will support the removal of profit from the care system.
Local and national strategic planning aligns budgets and investment decisions around the needs of children and their families. Challenges in sustaining care are addressed through pooled budgets and coordinated approaches resulting in sufficient provision that meets children’s and families’ needs safely and locally.
Strategic planning will reflect the needs of children in local authorities and the challenges in the management of places and sustainability of settings of care will have been discussed and addressed. There will be strategic, needs based planning for children so that they are provided with warm, relational, therapeutic, safe, loving homes when they are required (Pg 111).
Systematic disinvestment from acute and crisis services has made resources available to support prevention and early help and support. Services that no longer meet need are refined or phased out, ensuring sustainable investment in what works.
Prevention will be the primary focus of services and therefore also of investment. Acute and crisis services will be phased out (Pg 111). An approach to systematically disinvest in the services and processes that are no longer meeting need will be in place to ensure funding is available for investment.
Services will have changed according to need to get away from a systemisation of care (Pg 111). A process to identify investment and disinvestment opportunities across the whole system will have been undertaken with a strategic approach to funding embedded into organisational and budgeting processes across Scotland in place. That process will have involved organisations working together to align and pool budgets to enable investment. There will have been a decisive shift in emphasis towards early intervention and prevention across all services. As the number of children and families requiring a service reduces, the service will become obsolete or be refined so that it meets current and future need (Pg 111).
Commissioning is guided by principles of relational working, trust-based partnerships, and shared accountability, not cost-and-volume contracting. Longer-term funding arrangements promote stability and impact.
When services are meeting standards and making a positive impact, ensuring stability will be key to funding decisions. Longer-term commissioning, grant programmes and contracts will be the norm, rather than the exception (Pg 112).
Commissioning of services for children and families will not be undertaken on a ‘cost and volume’ basis, but instead will be based on principles that underpin relational working and longer-term partnerships, breaking down silos, systems and organisational interests. Levels of payment will not determine where and who are the best people to care for a child (Pg 78).
The views of children, young people, and families are central to service design, commissioning and evaluation, ensuring decisions reflect their rights, needs, and relationships.
Children and their families’ voices will be heard and taken into account when Scotland commissions services so that they are the centre of decision-making (Pg 110). The views and voices of people who services work alongside will be actively involved and included in the work to shape, create and evaluate them.
Scotland will ensure public service planning, commissioning strategies and procurement are attuned to the needs of brothers and sisters to promote those relationships and prevent separation (Pg 62).
Rights
Scotland fully upholds children and young people’s human rights. Every child, young person, and carer understands and can access their rights, which are taught, modelled and embedded across all settings. If children are moved from their families, their rights will be upheld as a minimum standard for their care.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has been directly incorporated into our domestic law in Scotland - within the limits of our devolved competence. (Pg 26). The UNCRC will be the bedrock upon which all legislation is based to ensure that children’s rights are upheld as a matter of course (Pg 112).
If children are removed from their families, their rights will be upheld as a minimum standard for their care. There will be a culture of care in place where the whole of the workforce respects, upholds, champions and defends the rights of children for whom they are responsible (Pg 26).
Children and carers will have access to information about their rights and entitlements at any point in their journey of care (Pg 26).
All children and young people, whatever their educational setting, will learn about their rights in a developmentally appropriate way (Pg 71).
The system will revolve around the rights of the child so their health, education and right to play are never compromised by contact with the 'care system' (Pg 26).
Rights are upheld through relational practice rather than bureaucracy. Definitions of care experience and entitlements are inclusive and enduring, and systems address social and economic barriers that prevent nurturing care.
Scotland will be upholding the rights of the child in a way that does not reinforce a focus on policy, process and procedure but supports the ability of children and those around them to connect and develop relationships and cultures that uphold their rights as a matter of course (Pg 26).
There will be a universal, commonly understood, definition of care experience as it relates to rights and entitlements and it will reflect the ongoing responsibility to those affected, recognising that parents seek to provide care and support for their children beyond the age of 18 (Pg 118).
Scotland will have ensured current definitions that act as the access point for rights and entitlements are inclusive enough to benefit all young people for whom Scotland has had parenting responsibility and whose family life has been disrupted by the decisions of the State (Pg 118).
The system will recognise and mitigates the impact that that failure to provide for the needs of vulnerable adults, through the social security system, access to services and support, has on their ability to care and provide nurturing, loving relationships (Pg 27).
Scotland upholds children’s right to safety, dignity and relational support in all settings. Scotland is a nation that does not restrain its children unless in exceptional circumstances, and when it is unavoidable it is co-regulated, trauma-informed, lawful, recorded and used only to keep a child safe. The workforce are nurtured and supported, recognising their needs in this. Consistent definitions, safeguards and leadership cultures grounded in care and rights
Scotland will be a nation that does not restrain its children unless the only option is to ensure their safety, and in those cases will always follow a model which focuses on co-regulation, so that the workforce reflects on their responses. The right of children to be protected from violence is the primary consideration (Pg 86).
Scotland will recognise its responsibility to create an environment which actively reduces the likelihood of restraint, and respond appropriately to individual children in crisis (page 85).
Settings of care will have established a leadership culture that upholds children’s rights and applies the values of care, attachment, attunement and co-regulation in day to day life. The workforce will be nurtured and supported, recognising that children may exhibit challenging behaviours that may at times make them feel scared (Pg 85).
All restraints and use of seclusion will be recorded and reported so Scotland understands its use and monitor progress towards its cessation. Reports will reflect what children and the workforce say about their experience of restraint and prioritise a full understanding of the impact of restraint not only on just one child but on others living and working in a location where restraint takes place (Pg 86).
Scrutiny and inspection
Scotland's regulation and inspection systems are centred on relationships and children’s rights. Regulators work collaboratively to a single, coherent framework that reflects what children and families value.
The way that services for children are inspected and the way the workforce is regulated and supported will have been altered and reoriented to uphold relationships so children feel loved, safe and respected (Pg 27).
There will have been significant decluttering and streamlining of professional codes, procedures and processes with a clear focus on enabling relationships—above anything else (Pg 28).
There will be established, consistent care standards across all providers, subject to independent scrutiny and accreditation that values what children and families value (Pg 111).
There will be consistency across all regulators, which will align the evidence base to avoid duplication and ensure shared values and focus between those with inspection responsibility (Pg 119).
Accreditation to provide services will follow the application of Scotland wide, core standards and principles. All those providing care will comply with Scotland’s agreed and stated ambition for care (Pg 112).
The Care Inspectorate, the SSSC and other regulators will have come together to create a new, holistic framework that values what children value. The framework will apply to the entirety of care journeys, including ‘aftercare’ and advocacy services, focused on children's experiences and their ability to find and sustain safe and nurturing relationships (Pg 119). The rights of children will be at the heart of this framework, so that all services, settings and professionals understand that it is their responsibility to uphold and promote children’s rights (Pg 119).
There will be meaningful involvement and collaboration between the Care Inspectorate, the SSSC and regulators across prisons, education and the third sector to ensure all professionals share a language of care and support to uphold the rights and relationships so important to children (Pg 28).
Scrutiny is supportive, reflective and developmental. Inspection and regulation promotes continuous improvement, upholds relational practice, and values care over compliance.
Inspection processes will support organisational reflective practice and continuous improvement. There will be a collaborative and appreciative enquiry approach to the inspection of services (Pg 120).
Inspectors will take a person-centred approach that values and understands relationship-based practice and will be skilled at working with providers (Pg 119).
System analysis will form part of inspection, providing clarity about processes in relation to the overall commissioning of services and how that impacts on delivery (Pg 120).
Scotland’s services will have time collectively to reflect on and understand learning from all Significant Case Reviews (Pg 120).
All inspection and investigation focuses on children’s lived experiences. Children’s voices are integral to how quality is defined, assessed, and improved.
Professional regulation and fitness to practice regimes will reflect the value of workforce relationships with children. Investigations into alleged misconduct will seek to uphold not only compliance with policy and procedure but the overall ethos of care and importance of cherishing relationships with children (Pg 120).
Regulation and scrutiny will focus on listening and ensuring that children and young people feel loved, safe, and respected, and that families and care experienced adults feel supported (Pg 27).
Children’s voices and their experiences will be the focus of inspection and investigation processes. There will be significant emphasis on listening and responding to what they are reporting about service and professional provision (Pg 119).
Inspection and investigation processes will have integrated meaningful participation methodologies into how they assess the quality of services and understand how to listen, present and collate the voices of children into the inspection process (Pg 119).
Inspection in settings where children live will focus on the children’s experience of the relationships and will be led primarily by what children say and how they feel they are being cared for (Pg 80).
When ‘young inspectors’ are used as part of inspection processes they will receive significant support and training (Pg 119)